WATG16

Giftedness stretches far beyond performance.  These children and youth tend to have specific and intense psychosocial needs and traits that make them vulnerable to misdiagnosis, missed diagnosis, behavioral or mental health issues, relational conflicts, and academic underperformance.  In this workshop we will briefly discuss factors contributing to the un-wellness of many of our gifted students, and then spend the majority of our time considering interventions to help them move toward greater wellness.  Specific attention will be given to modulating intensities, understanding and managing anxiety, and understanding and responding to existential depression.  Interventions useful in the classroom, a counselor's office, and at home will be discussed and practiced. 

Outcomes: Participants will be able to...

• Identify at least 3 factors contributing to psychosocial dysregulation in gifted students


• Identify and implement at least 3 interventions to help gifted individuals manage anxiety effectively


• Identify and implement at least 3 interventions to help gifted individuals regulate mood effectively.

This session will focus on the risk factors associated with students of poverty and suggestions on ways to engage these students in learning and overcoming these adverse effects.

Outcomes

NAGC Standard 1: Learning and Development

To be effective in working with learners with gifts and talents, teachers and other educators in PreK-12 settings must understand the characteristics and needs of the population for whom they are planning curriculum, instruction, assessment, programs, and services.  Knowing the impact of poverty, these educators will make changes to the instruction based on researched practices.

Standard 4: Learning Environments

Educators will reflect on their district, school, or classroom environments in relation to students living in poverty.  They will set goals of ways to make changes to the environment to address the needs of these students. 

EXHIBITOR SESSION: GREAT BOOKS FOUNDATION
Experience The Great Books Shared Inquiry method of learning in this hands-on session.  From pre-reading, to marking the text, and thinking critically about content,  each participant will share ideas and support their views with evidence.   Each educator will leave with a full unit plan. 

This session will provide an overview of the process that was followed to shift to the Total School Cluster Model (TSCM) in the Montello School District where the TSCM was used as the baseline for creating classroom rosters for the 2016-2017 school year in grades K-8. For those not familiar with it, the TSCM benefits gifted learners by grouping them with their peers in their homeroom classroom.

The implementation timeline, presentation materials and the successes and challenges of this journey will be shared. Opportunities to ask questions will be invited throughout the session with time dedicated at the end.

 Outcomes

Attendees will understand that the TSCM supports gifted learners needs to work with like ability learners and to learn at an accelerated speed with staff who is knowledgeable about the needs and abilities of this special population.

NAGC Programming Standards Addressed

1.5. Awareness of Needs. Students'€™ families and communities understand similarities and differences with respect to the development and characteristics of advanced and typical learners and support students with gifts and talents€™ needs.

1.6. Cognitive and Affective Growth. Students with gifts and talents benefit from meaningful and challenging learning activities addressing their unique characteristics and needs.

5.1. Variety of Programming. Students with gifts and talents participate in a variety of evidence-based programming options that enhance performance in cognitive and affective areas.

Two common traits of gifted individuals are perfectionism and introversion. This session will explain common challenges that these traits bring for gifted children as they navigate their lives at home and at school.  Attendees will learn strategies to help their children or students develop healthy perfectionism and expand their comfort level with taking risks as an introvert. Guidance groups in school are an excellent opportunity to address these social and emotional needs of our gifted students. This session will share the voices of the gifted students in our district’s guidance group for advanced learners in grades 3-5.  Attendees will learn how their school can start a group and get this important work started for the children in their lives.

NAGC K-12 Programming Standards1.3. Self-Understanding. Students with gifts and talents demonstrate understanding of and respect for similarities and differences between themselves and their peer group and others in the general population. 4.1. Personal Competence. Students with gifts and talents demonstrate growth in personal competence and dispositions for exceptional academic and creative productivity. These include self-awareness, self-advocacy, self-efficacy, confidence, motivation, resilience, independence, curiosity, and risk taking. 4.1.3. Educators create environments that support trust among diverse learners.4.1.5. Educators provide examples of positive coping skills and opportunities to apply them. 5.7.1. Educators provide professional guidance and counseling for individual student strengths, interests, and values.

This session will go through all of the planning facets for a Social-Emotional day for advanced and gifted learners.  This workshop was implemented for the first time in the Southern Lakes Advanced Learner Network this year, and met with great success. 

Participants will receive an electronic copy of planning documents to assist them in planning their own regional workshop!

NAGC Standards:

1.1. Self-Understanding. Students with gifts and talents demonstrate self-knowledge with respect to their interests, strengths, identities, and needs in socio-emotional development and in intellectual, academic, creative, leadership, and artistic domains.

1.2. Self-Understanding. Students with gifts and talents possess a developmentally appropriate understanding of how they learn and grow; they recognize the influences of their beliefs, traditions, and values on their learning and behavior.

1.3. Self-Understanding. Students with gifts and talents demonstrate understanding of and respect for similarities and differences between themselves and their peer group and others in the general population.

1.4. Awareness of Needs. Students with gifts and talents access resources from the community to support cognitive and affective needs, including social interactions with others having similar interests and abilities or experiences, including same-age peers and mentors or experts.

This session will be a facilitated parent discussion.  Co-facilitators, Dal and Jackie Drummer, Nationally Certified SENG (Supporting the Emotional Needs of Gifted) trainers, will encourage parents to share ideas, information, and the joys and challenges of parenting gifted children and adolescents.

Outcomes

As a result of these sessions, parents will network, share information and resources in a guided facilitation format.  This session is designed to help parents deal more effectively with the unique social, emotional and learning needs of their gifted child/ren. Community resource ideas, and specific parenting techniques will be explored. This is related to NAGC Standard One: Learning and Development.

Several constructs related to motivation have been found to be important for academic achievement.  What are these constructs and do they apply across all demographic groups?  In this presentation, Dr. Worrell will review several of the major motivation frameworks, show how they apply across demographic groups, and discuss the specific challenges that arise in motivating students from groups traditionally underrepresented in gifted and talented education backgrounds. 

Do you have students who struggle to start and finish tasks, recall and follow multi­step directions, plan, stay organized, pay attention to important details and/or
complete tasks in a timely fashion? Come join us to learn some new research­based strategies to support children with executive function challenges.

Learner Outcomes:

• Understand Executive Functioning


• Learn strategies to assess needs in the area of executive function (EF)


• Determine effective strategies for successful Tier II and III interventions for EF needs for all students, including students with special needs and advanced learners 

When a student consistently achieves scores at the 99th percentile on grade level assessments, it can be difficult to tell what the student's academic needs really are. 

Northwestern University's Midwest Academic Talent Search (NUMATS) utilizes above-grade-level assessment, as a means of gifted testing, to help parents and educators better understand their students’ educational needs. This session will cover the background of academic talent search, the nuts and bolts of the NUMATS Toolbox, ideas for using scores to advocate, as well as cautions, and other resources.

This session will focus on learning how to structure a math workshop where all student needs can be met.  You will learn how you can make differentiation manageable in a classroom of primary learners using a hands-on approach.  Students will learn how to make decisions about their own learning.  It will also touch on how to incorporate technology into math workshop in the primary grades.  This session will best help prepare for teaching math in a kindergarten or first grade classroom.

Learner Outcomes: Session attendees will learn how to:

 

• Structure a  math workshop for differentiation


• Incorporate math tools where students make choices on what helps them learn


• Integrate technology into the workshop and how to use it for differentiation


• Set and track learning goals for students

 

Young gifted students benefit from learning to code using Scratch and other introductory computer science programs. These experiences become even more powerful and meaningful when students are challenged to represent their code using 3D construction materials like LEGOs and wooden unit blocks. Tangible construction projects can also be used in partnership with virtual world-building games like Minecraft to build spatial reasoning skills, as well as extend content learning in other subject areas, including math, engineering, design, and architecture.

In this session, the presenters will draw on their experience developing and implementing enrichment programs in computer science and robotics for gifted students in PreK through grade 3. The presenters will summarize the constructivist learning concepts that support multi-media and cross-media learning and describe new neuroscience research that demonstrates the importance of pairing tangible and virtual learning experiences.

Outcomes

In alignment with NAGC Standard 3.4, this session demonstrates instructional strategies that incorporate critical thinking, creative-thinking, problem-solving, and inquiry-led learning to meet the needs of students with gifts and talents. Participants will gain new understanding of the value of tangible, sensory and kinesthetic learning experiences when teaching abstract computer science content. The presenters will also provide resources and suggestions for immediate and practical use in both general and gifted classrooms.

Students who are identified as having a disability are often not considered for gifted identification and are underrepresented in gifted programs.  Many adults believe that students with disabilities cannot also be gifted.  Teacher training helps alleviate this misconception.  This session will present information about what teachers and parents can do to meet some of the needs of twice-exceptional students.

 Outcomes

As a result of this session participants will:

• Explain the Exceptionality Continuum


• Define, compare and contrast disability and giftedness


• Describe twice-exceptionality


• Discuss the difference between accommodations, adaptations, or modifications(NAGC Standards: 1.6.2, 3.1.3)


• Identify differentiation strategies that include accommodations, adaptations, or modifications(NAGC Standards:  1.7.1, 3.1.3)


• Examine strategies that require higher order thinking skills(NAGC Standards: 1.6.1, 2.1.1, 3.4.1, 3.4.2, 3.4.3, 3.4.4)


• Integrate assistive technology into differentiated lessons to meet student needs (NAGC Standard: 3.1.7,


• Justify collaboration time between general educators, special educators, and gifted educators as valuable to meet student needs. (NAGC Standard 5.2.1)

This session will help participants creatively think about how negotiation and advocacy skills can be used to create change in talented and gifted education at both the school district and individual school level. We will outline key advocacy factors and how they can be put to practical use as individual advocates or as part of a larger network of advocates.

We will discuss both strategies that have worked and ones that haven't worked to better target time, energy and advocacy resources to have the greatest effect. Participants will develop their own advocacy "road map" to use in their own school district to advocate for change.

Outcomes

We will use information from the book "Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without Giving In" by Roger Fischer and William Ury, "The Effective Advocates" article by Dr. Julia Link Roberts and Tracy Ford Inman, the NAGC Advocacy Toolkit, and our own experiences as advocates in the Madison Metropolitan School District.

Participants will be able to begin to identify challenges and barriers that exist in their own district to implementing effective talented and gifted instruction from multiple perspectives. They will also identify 2-3 actions they can take to become more informed about the "state" of talented and gifted education in their district.